Human rights office steps into row as
residents of nations maligned by president
respond angrily and demand apology.

Trump suggested the US should bring more
immigrants from Norway, not ‘shithole
countries’.

By Patrick Wintour, Jason Burke and Anna
Livsey

January 12, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
-
Remarks by Donald Trump
describing immigrants from Africa and Haiti
as coming from “shithole countries” were
racist, the United Nations human rights
office has said, as it led global
condemnation of the US president.

On Thursday,
Trump questioned why the US would want to
have immigrants from
Haiti and
African nations, suggesting instead more
immigrants should come from Norway, whose
prime minister he had met on Wednesday.

According to a report in the
Washington Post,
Trump said: “Why are we having all these
people from shithole countries come here?”
after he had been presented with a proposal
to restore protections for immigrants from
El Salvador, Haiti and certain African
nations as part of a bipartisan immigration
deal. In a statement, the White House did
not deny the account, instead highlighting
Trump’s hardline immigration stance.

The UN human rights spokesman, Rupert
Colville, told a Geneva news briefing:
“There is no other word one can use but
racist. You cannot dismiss entire countries
and continents as ‘shitholes’, whose entire
populations, who are not white, are
therefore not welcome.”

On Friday morning, Trump tweeted that the
language he had used in the meeting had been
tough, but said the reported words were not
precisely the ones he had used.

Robin Diallo, the US chargé d’affaires to
Haiti, has been summoned to meet the Haitian
president, Jovenel Moïse, to discuss Trump’s
remarks. The former Haitian president
Laurent Lamothe expressed his dismay, saying
Trump had shown“ a lack of respect and
ignorance”.

El Salvador’s foreign minister, Hugo
Martinez, tweeted about Salvadoran
contributions to the US. “A good part of
those who helped rebuild New Orleans after
Katrina were Salvadoran. I feel proud to be
Salvadoran,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, US diplomats and the US
embassy in San Salvador sought to assure
those in
El Salvador of their respect for the
country.

Jean Manes, the US envoy to El Salvador,
tweeted in Spanish: “I have had the
privilege to travel around this beautiful
country and meet thousands of Salvadorans.
It is an honour to live and work here. We
remain 100% committed.”

Across
Africa there was diplomatic fury.
Botswana’s government called Trump’s comment
“reprehensible and racist” and said the US
ambassador had been summoned to clarify
whether the nation was regarded as a
“shithole” country after years of cordial
relations.

The
African Union said it was “alarmed” by
Trump’s language. “Given the historical
reality of how many Africans arrived in the
United States as slaves, this statement
flies in the face of all accepted behaviour
and practice,” AU spokeswoman Ebba Kalondo
told the Associated Press.

“This is particularly surprising as the
United States of America remains a global
example of how migration gave birth to a
nation built on strong values of diversity
and opportunity.”

Jessie Duarte, the deputy secretary
general of South Africa’s ruling ANC, said:
“Ours is not a shithole country; neither is
Haiti or any other country in distress. It’s
not as if the United States doesn’t have
problems. There is unemployment in the US,
there are people who don’t have healthcare
services.”

Mexico’s former president, Vicente Fox,
who has been an outspoken critic of Trump,
said in a colourful tweet that
“America’s greatness was built on
diversity”. He added Trump’s mouth was “the
foulest shithole in the world. With what
authority do you announce who is welcome in
America and who is not? America’s greatness
is based on diversity, or have you forgotten
your migration background, Donald?”

In the US, Cedric Richmond, a Democratic
congressman and chairman of the
Congressional Black Caucus, said Trump’s
comments were “yet another confirmation of
his racially insensitive and ignorant views”
that reinforce “the concerns that we hear
every day, that the president’s slogan ‘Make
America Great Again’ is really code for
‘Make America White Again’.”

Mia Love, a Utah Republican whose family
came from Haiti, condemned Trump’s remark as
“unkind, divisive, elitist” and demanded an
apology for the American people and the
nations he “wantonly maligned”.

James Comey, who was fired as director of
the FBI by Trump, quoted the inscription on
the Statue of Liberty:

David Miliband, the president of the
International Rescue Committee,
said Trump’s comments were leading a
“race to the bottom on refugees”.

Trump has made few references to Africa
since his election, and many senior
Africa-focused posts in his administration
remain unfilled.

In September, he appeared to invent a new
country called Nambia while addressing
African leaders in Washington. Trump also
told them: “I have so many friends going to
your countries, trying to get rich. It has a
tremendous business potential.”

Boniface Mwangi, a well-known social
activist in Kenya tweeted that Africa “isn’t
a shithole”.

Standing at a coffee stall outside an
office block in Rosebank , a commercial and
business neighbourhood in central
Johannesburg, Blessing Dlamini, a
45-year-old administrative assistant, said
Trump’s words came as “no surprise”.

“He has shown the world he is a racist.
We should just block him from our thoughts,”
Dlamini said.

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